Tax Dollars Being Wasted

One more note on the NPR-Juan Williams debacle -- Mike Huckabee was one of the folks who yesterday called upon the federal government to defund NPR.  I don't know if defunding it would actually have any impact on NPR, but the whole thing brings to mind a question: why does NPR get public funding anyway?

I understand why public television gets money, even if I don't agree with it.  People are probably reluctant to defund the guys who bring Sesame Street to their kids.  But NPR?  Look, I know there are plenty of people who enjoy their programs, but there's plenty of people who enjoy UFC and MMA, and no one's pushing for them to get federal funding.  Perhaps the argument can be made that NPR performs a valuable public service, but (a) if it's so valuable, presumably it will be supported by the free market, and (b) is the problem in America really that we don't have enough media sources of information?

Yeah, I have no real interest in listening to NPR, but I still don't understand why it gets a dime of taxpayer money.